The Secret of the Supers (The First Superhero Book 4) (9 page)

W
e stood nearby
the four Supers we’d captured. The Eximus handcuffs giving them a steady stream of energy, keeping them from breaking out. The forensic team along with some detectives were on the way in order to figure out exactly what Jigsaw and his men were doing there. We’d tried to question the prisoners, but they weren’t answering us. Ellie told us not to waste our energy and just let the “professionals” take care of them.

The whole operation they had going on seemed like it was working well. Ellie and her team—or “our” team, as it now were—would go in and do the heavy lifting, while another team was sent out to clean up the mess and figure out exactly what was going on. Selena and I both agreed that it was nice not to have to do everything ourselves.

“How many times have attacks like these happened?” I asked Ellie. We were standing up against the balcony wall, the ground level three stories below us.

She thought about it for a moment. “Five or six?” she looked to Avery for confirmation.

Avery nodded her head. “They’re usually a lot more…involved than this one,” she said as she brushed a piece of her black hair out of her face.

“What do you mean?” Selena asked.

“Well, they’re usually the ones attacking us. Like we said when you first got here, they’re usually just testing us, trying to find weaknesses to exploit. This time though…I don’t know. It was different,” Ellie explained.

“It seemed like they weren’t intending for a fight,” Drew said.

I scoffed as I looked at the destruction that we’d caused around us. “Well, they got one.”

“That’s for sure,” Ellie said. “It did seem like they were hiding something. Searching for something. I don’t know. Leopold would’ve been really good at figuring this type of stuff out.”

“Where is he?” I asked.

Ellie shook her head. “I’m not positive, but even if I was I wouldn’t be able to tell. Out on some sort of mission. Thomas and Nathan too. Not the smartest decision to send our main Supers off whenever we’re being attacked, although they all left before Jigsaw got here. Now you and your mates are here though, so we’ll be fine,” Ellie said. “We did pretty well together.”

We all smiled and nodded. “Yeah, we make a pretty great team.”

The large doors at the entrance to the library swung open and I looked over the edge of the balcony and saw a flood of government agents poor in.

“Looks like our replacements are here,” Avery said. “I’ll go show them where we’re at.”

“Thanks,” Ellie said as Avery walked towards the stairwell. She turned to us. “Not much longer now and we can all head back and get cleaned up.”

“I think I’m going to read a book. In memory of our fallen comrades,” Drew said with a smirk.

We laughed at him as we waited for the agents to make their way up to us and take the prisoners off our hands.

****

A
n hour
later and I was standing in my bathroom shower, my mind empty of all thoughts, enjoying the hot water running down my skin. I wanted to stay in there forever, but I knew I had to get out at some point. After a few more minutes, I shut the water off, and got out. I dried off and got dressed in a pair of basketball shorts and a black t-shirt.

I left the bathroom and walked into my room, unsure of what I was going to do for the rest of the night. I was pretty tired, but didn’t feel like going to sleep just yet.

A brown package sat on my bed with a note on it. I looked at the door and saw it was unlocked. Somebody must’ve come in and set it there for me. I sat down and looked at the note. It read:

F
igured
you could use one of these so we don’t have to page you every time we need you :)

-Ellie

I
opened the box up
, and inside was a brand new cell phone sitting in its package. I couldn’t help but smile as I opened it up and pulled out the slick black device. It was brand new, not a single fingerprint on it.

I turned the phone on, and went through the process of setting it all up. My number was long and confusing, very different from how the phone numbers in America were set up.

A funny feeling fell over me. The phone felt alien in my hands. It’d been so long since I held one, much less used one. But as I looked at the four bars of signal I had, I thought I was going to tear up and cry. It sounds stupid, but it all just felt so normal, and that was something I hadn’t felt in a very long time. If I closed my eyes, I could imagine that I was back home on my parent’s farm in Ebon, Indiana, sitting on my bed, texting my friends.

I got the idea that I might send out a mass text to as many phone numbers as I could remember, but that idea got squashed pretty quick. All the antennas had long since been destroyed. There was no way anybody in America was getting a signal.

I then thought about checking and seeing if any of my friends had posted something to Facebook or Twitter. It would’ve been a few months old, but still, maybe I could see if they’d been able to get somewhere safe. The servers for all those websites were long gone though, so there was no chance.

As I held a device in my hand that could connect me to the whole world, I felt hopelessly alone.

A knock at the door shook me from my own thoughts. I jumped up and walked over to the door, checking through the peephole. Doug stood on the other side looking freshly showered. “Hey,” I said as I opened the door.

“Hey man, gonna go get some food. Come with me, I wanna hear all about your fight with Jigsaw,” Doug said with an eager smile.

Even though Doug—and most other teenagers, really—had to throw away their childish behaviors once Atlas rocked our worlds, every once in a while Doug would do something that would remind me that he’s just a fourteen year old kid. The excitement he had when it came to any story involving Supers was one of those things.

“Sure,” I said. I shut my door behind me and locked it. “You get yourself one of these?” I said, showing Doug my phone.

He smiled and nodded, pulling his own out of his pocket. “Yeah, while you were out being a superhero and fighting bad guys, I was setting up my shiny new cell phone. Who’s the new winner here?”

I laughed and slipped the phone back in my pocket. “Definitely you, Doug. You’ll be out there fighting with us one day,” I said.

“Will I though?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “By the time we find out what the hell my powers are we’ll either have won the war, or be long dead.”

“At least we know you have them,” I said. I looked around in the hallway. “Which one of these rooms are yours?” I asked.

Doug stopped in his tracks and turned around. “Let me show you real quick, it’s back this way.”

We turned and walked back down the way we came. We passed my room, and kept walking a few more doors down.

“This is it,” he said, standing in front of the room four down from me. “If you ever need anything just knock.” He patted his pocket with a smile. “Or shoot me a text.”

I was about to respond, but then I heard something that sounded like shouting. I paused for a moment, listening to hear where the sound was coming from. “Are you hearing that?” I asked.

“What?”

“Shouting.”

Doug stopped and listened for a moment. We stood in the middle of the hallway while a couple of people walked past. After a few seconds he shrugged. “I think I hear something. Probably somebody’s superior yelling at them for doing a bad job.”

I thought I recognized the voices though. I took a couple steps towards the voices. I wanted to use my super hearing to listen more, but I didn’t want to be eavesdropping. I just wanted to be sure that no one was in trouble. The voices got louder, and after walking down to the room two down from the elevator, I found where the voices were coming from.

“They’re in here,” I whispered to Doug who stood behind me.

“That’s Drew’s room,” he said with wide eyes.

Well, now I had no choice but to listen, even if just for a few seconds. I had to be sure everything was okay.

“Just stop talking for two seconds and listen to what I’m trying to say!” I recognized the voice instantly.
Selena
.

I stopped listening immediately, not wanting to violate their privacy. I found that to be extremely difficult, however. Curiosity burned within me, and all the possibilities about what the two of them could be arguing about floated around my head.

“What is it?” Doug said, tapping me on the back.

I turned around and starting walking back down the hallway in the direction we were originally going, waving for Doug to follow. “It was Drew and Selena,” I said as we were walking.

“Selena?” Doug said, confused. “What was she doing arguing with Drew?”

I shook my head. “I have no clue. That’s really weird though, I don’t know what they could be arguing about.”

We walked in silence for a few seconds, our minds wandering, trying to figure out all the possibilities.

“Are they…?” Doug began.

I looked at him, eyebrows and shoulders raised. “No telling. They haven’t acted like it. At least, I don’t think so.”

“We should ask them.”

“Are you kidding? You wanna ask Selena a question like that? She’ll pummel you bro. No joke, she wouldn’t let you finish your sentence.”

Doug laughed and rubbed his eyes. “Man, this is so weird.”

“You don’t know if it means anything.”

“You don’t know if it
doesn’t
mean anything.”

“What are you saying?” I waved him off. “Let’s just forget about it and get some food. I’m starving.”

We walked towards the cafeteria, unable to think about anything else.

I
t was
the next day and I’d just finished doing some shooting practice at the underground gun range with Avery and Eddie. I hadn’t seen Drew or Selena, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to yet. I was still trying to figure out what was going on between them—both good and bad.

The obvious possibility was that they were in a relationship. That was weird to think about, but I mean, I guess I was happy for them. There were worse things that could be happening. Like their relationship going south. Which was exactly what was happening. At least, that was what it seemed like. Of course I could find out if I just asked them.

And of course, that wasn’t going to happen.

Avery clicked the button for the fifth floor, and the elevator began moving. “You guys want some lunch?” she asked.

“I could use some,” I said.

“Me too,” Eddie agreed.

“You’re shooting is really good, Eddie,” I said after a few moments of silence. “I didn’t think you would do that well, seeing as you’re almost never away from your tools,” I teased.

“Hey, don’t underestimate me. I’m loaded with skills,” he said, brushing his shoulders.

“I have to admit, I was surprised too,” Avery said. “Kane and I could’ve used you whenever we were fighting Raven’s men.”

I laughed, thinking back to that time a few weeks ago when it was just Avery and I, and a ton of Raven’s men inside the library on the military base. I wasn’t sure what it was with my enemies affinity for libraries. “Yeah, he was too busy having to have us rescue him
from
Raven’s men though,” I said.

Avery and I laughed as the elevator doors opened, and Eddie crossed his arms in a fake pout. “You guys said,” he said with a smirk. “I discovered my powers whenever two assholes were bullying me. You two better watch out.”

“Aw, he’s got an attitude
and
he discovered his powers while being bullied. How adorably cliche,” Avery said, batting her eyelashes at Eddie.

Eddie’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment. He was a good sport though, and laughed it off. “We can’t all be badass and discover our powers while punching the only Super in the world in the face, then catching a hottie on her way to the ground.”

Avery laughed, as did I, albeit uncomfortably. I didn’t like the way Eddie referred to Macy as a “hottie”. I didn’t like the feelings that even came up at the mention of her name.

So I pushed them down and changed the conversation. “How about you, Avery?” I asked as we entered the small food court. “How’d you discover your powers?”

Avery shook her head thinking about it. “It’s kind of…” she searched for the right word. “I’m not sure how to describe it, really.”

“Then don’t describe what it’s like, just tell it!” Eddie said, nudging her on.

“Okay, well to give you some background, my mum and dad immigrated to London from Iran when I was a young girl. I lived there long enough to know what it was like to be very poor; to have basically nothing. Anyways, when we moved here, my father started one of the first tech startups in Britain, and became very wealthy, which meant I went to a very preppy, rich school.”

“Oh gosh, don’t tell Doug that. He’ll demand to meet your father immediately,” I said.

Avery laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to refrain.” We stepped forward in line, and she continued. “So, since I knew what it was like to be very poor and to have basically nothing, I overcompensated when I went to school. I wore my school uniform while there, but I always wore expensive clothes outside of class. I made fun of people who were more poor than I was, and flaunted money that wasn’t even mine.” Avery shook her head and hid her face in her hands. “Oh my gosh,” she said, laughing. “This is so embarrassing. I was terrible!”

I chuckled with her. “Yeah, you’re not painting the best picture.”

Avery punched my arm. “Shut up, you can’t tell me you never bullied anybody.”

I shook my head. “I actually had a few bullies of my own,” I said, thinking back to Brian. Yet another person I never knew what happened to.

“Anyways, I grew up just being the worst type of person. Even though I made fun of Eddie, I was your “mean girl” cliche in every way. Then graduation day came. A day I looked forward to forever. I spent hours having professionals do my hair and makeup, spent way too much money on the dress I was going to wear under my gown, and then an entirely different outfit for the graduation party. But then before the ceremony began, I turned invisible. I don’t know how I did it, why I did it, and I definitely didn’t know how to stop doing it.”

Eddie’s eyes grew wide. “You mean you missed your graduation?”

Avery nodded. “Yep, missed the whole thing. Talk about karma.”

“How did you end up working here?” Eddie asked.

I wanted to hear this story as well, but my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was amazing how fast I became used to that feeling again. I looked at the screen and had a text from Ellie.

H
ey
, need to talk to you in my office. Come by as soon as you can.

“
H
ey guys
, gotta run,” I said.

“Right in the middle of this story? How rude,” Eddie said, turning his nose up with a smile.

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll catch you later.”

I walked down the hallway towards Ellie’s. It was a weird thing, going to meet someone in their office when they’re the same age as me. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Did she have a new mission for us to go on already?

I reached the door on the other side of the elevators. It had a plaque on it that read
Ellie Montgomery
. I knocked, and waited a moment.

“Come in,” Ellie said on the other side, her crisp British accent cutting through the door clear as day.

I opened it and stepped inside. “Hey, everything okay?” I asked.

Ellie nodded. “Yes, I just thought you’d probably want an update on the investigative team’s findings on the library.”

“Oh, right,” I said sitting down in a chair, eager to hear more.

“Well, it’s definitely strange,” she said, leaning on her desk. “It looks as if they were searching for something.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Searching? Do they know what for?”

Ellie shook her head. “Not exactly. That section of the library though is where some history books are held.”

“What kind of history?”

“The twelfth and thirteenth century,” Ellie explained.

I sat back, trying to figure out what it could mean. “That’s two hundred years of history. There’s no telling what they could be searching for, is there?”

“No, unfortunately not.”

“What about the Supers we captured, are they giving up any information?” I asked.

“They’re keeping their mouths shut. We’re doing everything we can. Some of the higher ups are starting to put pressure on us to take more drastic measures,” she said, averting her eyes.

“You mean torture?”

Ellie nodded, the subject making her uncomfortable. “We’re exhausting all of our options before it comes to that, however.”

“Well, hopefully Jigsaw shows his face soon and we’ll be able to find out exactly what it is he’s doing here. I think it’s safe to assume that testing your forces isn’t the only thing they’re up to. Not unless they’re testing the skills of your investigative team.”

Ellie scoffed and smiled. “Yeah, I don’t quite think figuring out whether or not we can put clues together and dust for fingerprints is their devious master plan.” She pulled out one of the drawers in her desk. “I have one last thing for you before I have to go.” She reached in and pulled out a familiar looking leather blue suit. “I believe you know what this is,” she said as she pushed the outfit across the table.

I stood from my seat and picked it up. The dark blue leather felt smooth to the touch. “It’s my Tempest outfit,” I said with a smile. It was like being reacquainted with an old friend. “I feel like it’s been a lifetime since I’ve seen one of these.”

“Our people had one made for you. We think it’d be good if you wore it whenever you go out as a Super. Try and reassure our citizens,” Ellie explained.

“Are you sure it’d reassure them? I thought you guys said you didn’t want them to know Supers were flying around their city?”

“Well, they already know there’s the bad Supers flying around. It’d be good for them to know there was a good one about as well,” she said.

I rubbed the suit between my fingers, thinking about all the fun times I had wearing one—and the not so fun times. It felt like it’d been forever since I was wearing this outfit and flying around as Tempest, back when it was just Richter and I. Even though those weren’t the best of times for the Earth, they were much better than the ones we were in. I would’ve exchanged now for then any day of the week. Even if it meant Richter and I would be fighting each other from now until eternity.

“So you think you’ll wear it?” Ellie said.

It took me a moment to answer. Even though the suit reminded me of good times, it also reminded me of the people who made it. My parents, as a token of their undying support. They knew I’d do what was right, and I knew I would too with them by my side. Now they were who knows where. I wanted to believe they were okay, as did Selena and everybody else. But we had no way of knowing.

I thought of the people I wore it for. The people I no longer had in my life. Michael, my oldest friend, and the first personal casualty in my war. Macy, the girl I was in love with. Saving her was the whole reason I discovered my powers. But then—just once—I wasn’t there to catch her. I couldn’t save her. Then there was Samantha. She said herself that I was the one who gave her hope. The hope she needed to contact me in the desert all that time ago when I was fighting Richter. Now she was missing, and I was trusting in some mystical Super that I would be told her location.

All that baggage and loads more was packing into the fibers of the suit I held in my hand. Did I really want to put all that on again?

“Kane?” I heard Ellie say, breaking me from my trance. She placed a hand on my shoulder.

I realized I’d been crying. I wiped off the two tears that’d raced each other down my cheeks. “Sorry,” I said with an awkward chuckle. “Just a lot of memories with this thing.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to spring this on you,” she said. “You don’t have to wear it if you want to.” She reached for the outfit.

“No,” I said, pulling it back. “It’s okay, I understand. Let me think about it, okay?”

Ellie gave me a comforting smile and squeezed my shoulder. “Okay, you do that.”

I turned and walked out of her office, holding a relic to my past in my hands.